Russian internet isolation exercises cause malfunction in airports

In Russia, a massive Internet crash occurred on December 23, which paralyzed the work of several Russian airlines at a number of different airports in different parts of the country. 

Passenger and baggage registration systems, as well as reservations and ticket purchases, stopped working. Airlines had to register passengers and their baggage manually.

The failure occurred as a result of a test to isolate the Russian Internet conducted by the Russian authorities.

The exercises are provided for by the law ‘On the Sovereign Runet’, which has been the source of much controversy and protests.

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What is the Russian ‘sovereign internet?’

In March 2019, a rally in support of the free Internet was held in Moscow, more than 15,000 people came out to it. The demonstrators protested against the law on the sovereign runet and said that its result would be the isolation of Russia from the global Internet and services of companies such as Google.

But on November 1, 2019, the law on “Sovereign Runet” entered into force, with a declared goal of ensuring the security of Russia in case of its disconnection from the world Internet.

The law implies increased government control over telecom operators and traffic.

 According to the law, exercises, in which communication network owners, Internet companies and other market players are required to participate, will take place at least once a year.

And so they did for the first time on December 23, 2019.

Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta  writes that the Russian security service, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Guard Service and the Russian Guard, as well as the Ministry of Energy and other executive bodies were involved in the exercises on cybersecurity on the Internet.

The authorities promised that ordinary users would not notice the exercises, during which the study of threats would be carried out only on “specially designated segments, stands and training grounds”.

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Director of the nonprofit organization Internet Protection Society,

Mikhail Klimarev:

“These teachings were just an imitation.  First of all, because their plan was not announced in advance, as required by law.  Such teachings can only look like this – absolutely incompetent people will gather, they will puff out their cheeks and discuss those things that they do not understand, that’s all. What could be the expected result from these exercises?  I think they’ll all just get drunk there in the end.”